Wet Hot American Summer
Wet Hot American Summer
Set on the last day of camp, in the hot summer of 1981, a group of counselors try to complete their unfinished business before the day ends.
DarlingInThePlexx reviewedJune 10, 2025
This movie is pure slapstick brilliance—a cult classic that somehow went from Sundance flop to comedic gold. Imagine Naked Gun meets teen camp chaos, but weirder, zippier, and packed with early-’80s absurdism. 🎯🤣🌲
Who’s in it?
• Michael Showalter (co-writer & actor, from The State troupe)—kept that sketch-comedy sensibility flowing 
• Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Ken Marino, Michael Ian Black, Joe Lo Truglio, Molly Shannon, Christopher Meloni, and more—you don’t get all these future A-listers being this stupid and this funny 
These are the State-connected minds (Showalter, Wain, Black, Marino) flexing their comedic muscles, creating gleefully loopy chaos that feels like a fever dream of summer camp clichés—but with a sharp parody twist .
Laughter, or “the why is this funny? I have no idea” comedy, reigns supreme. It’s so delightfully dumb that it loops right back to genius. And the best part? The cast totally didn’t know they had a classic in the making.
Netflix even dropped two spinoffs—First Day of Camp (2015) and Ten Years Later (2017)—picking up the baton with nostalgia and fresh campfire jokes .
This is one of those lightning-in-a-bottle movies—if you get its absurd comedy vibe, it’s a masterpiece. If you don’t, it’s exactly why it’s not for everybody—but for a certain kind of genius-level dumb humor, it’s peerless.
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Tags: 😂 Sketch‑troupe Throwback, 🌞 Camp Parody, 🎬 Future Stars Galore, 🎯 Surreal Slapstick, 🔁 Cult Classic Revival